DescentBB

My dad and I sometimes chat about the wierdest things and he began to talk about things that are mechanical and electronic and when I told him that I like every single thing to be electronic, he gave me the following question and I am interested in your input. This is not a puzzle or game....

You are the only person in a plane along with a pilot. You are flying at 7000 feet when the plane loses both engines. With mountains all around and no place to land, the pilot orders you to go in back, take one of the two parachutes and bail out. He will hold the plane steady until you go then he will take the other and follow. You crawl to the rear and as you look at the parachutes you see that one is very old and the other is new.

The old one is the standard version with a manual ripcord and a gauge to show you when to pull it. It has some slight marks on it and is quite dusty. It has a tag that says \"Last packed 1986 by No.17\".

The new one has no ripcord or user controls. It is a fully automatic electronic version and says \"Last packed 2006 by No.27\". There is a green led indicator on it that says \"good\".

Question: Which one would you take....

There is no reserve chute, you can only take one, and you must bail out.

Bettina

By my logic, the fully automated one works better for newbies like me, if the pilot even has chutes ready, odds are he knows how to use them better then I do, so I take the automated one.

Youd be safer in the plane, planes do fly without engines

but yeah, Id go with the electronic one

I'd take'em both!

he has a better idea

They have electronic parachutes?!?!?!

The new one is probably made in China -- I'd go for the one made in the US

having worked with micro circuitry the last 5 years? I'd take the manual chute.

George Bush, Tony Blair, a pilot, and a kid are in a plane. The plane loses both it's engines and will surely crash. Sadly, there are only three parachutes. The group decides that the two VIPs and the kid should take the parachutes, and the pilot should go down with his plane. Tony Blair jumps out with his parachute, then George Bush does. As the kid turns to the pilot, the pilot says, \"Too bad there were only three parachutes. Here is the last one. I bid you good luck in life.\" The kid looks at the pilot and says, \"Not to worry sir... George took my backpack.\"

Based on this information, I'd pick the older one.

Money! wrote:George Bush, Tony Blair, a pilot, and a kid are in a plane. The plane loses both it's engines and will surely crash. Sadly, there are only three parachutes. The group decides that the two VIPs and the kid should take the parachutes, and the pilot should go down with his plane. Tony Blair jumps out with his parachute, then George Bush does. As the kid turns to the pilot, the pilot says, "Too bad there were only three parachutes. Here is the last one. I bid you good luck in life." The kid looks at the pilot and says, "Not to worry sir... George took my backpack."

Based on this information, I'd pick the older one.

LOL!!!!!!!!

I'd take the manual one. My first thought was this: Who knows at what altitude the elecronic one is set up to open. When if it is configured to open at a lower altitude than the ground happens to be where you land? At least with the manual one you have control over when it opens. I would assume that parachutes are made with a type of fabric that doesn't tear easily, so even if the old one has a few holes in it, it would still get you to the ground safely.

Electronic stuff by and large requires set-up, if you don't know how to set it up, or if you set it up incorrectly, it doesn't work correctly.

I also think in terms on occam's razor. The fancy electronic stuff just adds more complication to the system, and as a result you have more things that could go wrong.

snoopy wrote:I'd take the manual one. My first thought was this: Who knows at what altitude the elecronic one is set up to open. When if it is configured to open at a lower altitude than the ground happens to be where you land? At least with the manual one you have control over when it opens. I would assume that parachutes are made with a type of fabric that doesn't tear easily, so even if the old one has a few holes in it, it would still get you to the ground safely.

Electronic stuff by and large requires set-up, if you don't know how to set it up, or if you set it up incorrectly, it doesn't work correctly.

I also think in terms on occam's razor. The fancy electronic stuff just adds more complication to the system, and as a result you have more things that could go wrong.

x2. You just echoed my whole thought process right there. Electronic everything is bad.

I have 2 cars of the same make and model, one is a 93 Bonneville with manual climate control (you just have dials to set) while I also have a 96 where it has Electronic Climate Control (you set the temp and it regulates automatically). There are more issues with the cars having electronic climate controlls than the manual ones, alignment between heat/cold goes bad over time, the actuator breaks, ect. Case in point right there.

Manual. I don't trust electrons.

I would go for the manual one, the electronic one may have the amish computer virus.

imageshack.us


...then i'll run along the ground and catch the plane with one hand before it crashes... put the pilot back in the plane, toss it hard enough to make it back to texas, then jump back into it. Then I’ll eat a sandwich. stfu pwnd

Doesn't it matter how long it's been since a chute was packed? I guess maybe it doesn't... when I launched model rockets as a kid, a chute that had been packed for more than a day or so was likely to not open correctly, but that's because they were plastic stuff that could stick to itself. I guess a cloth chute wouldn't have that problem.

I'm pretty sure that most skydiving accidents happen because the user makes a mistake while jumping (like not pulling the ripcord at the right time), not because of equipment problems. The automatic one would have a big advantage on that. Having been skydiving once (a tandem jump with a pro skydiver), I THINK I could pull the ripcord at the right time, but passing out and/or being paralyzed by fear are serious dangers.

The biggest danger for me is that I wouldn't be able to make myself jump. I couldn't do it on my tandem dive. The instructor had to push me out the door.

Isaac wrote:imageshack.us

Crapy? The word is spelled 'crappy'.

Had to say it before Mobius.

Daikatsu - my pet hate is spelling \"definitely\" with an \"a\" in it. I don't care if someone makes a typo on an image, trying to spell \"crappy\". It's unlikely he'd be putting that word in a job application. Colloquial language usually doesn't register on my \"You're-an-uneducated-fool\" radar.

On to the thread topic then:

It's flawed scenario, as even a Cessna 170 has an autopilot which will hold the plane level and at the same altitude. Thus, you BOTH go rearwards, and then Rho-Sham-Bo for the old one.

OR, you each put on a single parachute, but put the harnesses through each other so you are connected, you then exit the aircraft.

If the automatic one doesn't open immediately you open the old one.

Either way, you are more than likely to end up with a single parachute above the both of you. You'll survive that impact - almost definitely. (I taught paragliding for 10 years, and used to test emergency parachutes over water.)

Most likely is that both open, and you land gently.

My way ensures both people survive, and there's no moral dilemma.

There are numerous problems with the story though, but I won't get into them - because the entir epremise boils down to \"Do you ensure your own safety at the possible expense of another person.\"

Mobius wrote:It's flawed scenario, as even a Cessna 170 has an autopilot which will hold the plane level and at the same altitude.

without an engine, making the autopilot hold altitude will stall it before you even make it to the back door

What if the guy who packed the chutes was the same guy who did maintenance on the engines?

OK - an autopilot on a plane is a pretty simple device. Mostly they are used to hold a bearing and an altitude, but they are also able to be set for a descent rate too. So my assumption is correct: you get the plane gliding at Max L/D (Which for most ordinary aircraft is at minimum, around 4:1 - but can be as high as 8:1 depending on the type of craft) and then hit the \"autopilot\" button.

... You keep the bearing you want, with the constant decent rate, and constant air speed...

The scenario is not flawed and its not a puzzle or a game. You were ordered to take ONE chute and bail out and I wanted to know which one you would take and what the reasoning might be if you chose to give it. The plane is just the experiment vehicle.

Anyway, I'm kinda losing with dad because I admit I would take the manual one whose design concept is time tested, simple, and does not require periodic functional tests. Occam's razor for me too...

Isaac... you are something else.

an autopilot on a large plan can hold a descent rate, but its not the L/D ratio your looking for. your looking for the glide distance to vertical distance ratio, theres no nice acronym for that one. in a cessna its about 9:1 at least in the cessna 172s I fly, its 9 to 1 =P

Who needs a parachute?
First, jump off the plane with the alligator and some conveniently lying around rope...

After the plane explodes, harness alligator to glide through air to the criminal mastermind that got you into this mess to begin with...

Then bite his head with the alligator...

Steal his parachute...

And now off to save the princess...

Dakatsu wrote:Crapy? The word is spelled 'crappy'.

I thought he actually meant crapy. Seems like a strange word to describe a plane, but who knows? I've never seen one made out of sticks before.

you people wrote: Crapy? The word is spelled 'crappy'.

I just stopped a plane with my bare hands. I can missspell any word ii want.

I think the most important point is that the accident happens when the plance is flying over mountains. Therefore, take the manual one in every case. The electronic one might be set to a certain altitude to open, and this altitude might be below the height of the mountains. Ouch!

True, take the manual one in mountains, otherwise this may happen:

Exactly!

Dakatsu wrote:True, take the manual one in mountains, otherwise this may happen:

Isaac after landing on the mountain wrote:There goes any hope of having children